USHA Silai School And Balrampur Foundation Are Empowering Women In Uttar Pradesh

Balrampur Chini Mills Limited (BCML) is the second-largest sugar manufacturing company in India. BCML was incorporated in 1975. Through its social responsibility initiative, the Balrampur Foundation, it aims to help rural women become financially independent. With the common objective of uplifting rural women, USHA and Balrampur Chini Mills Limited have come together in Gonad, Uttar Pradesh. This partnership with Balrampur Chini Mills Limited and intervention near their plant areas is helping women change their lives. It opened 25 USHA Silai Schools last year and will open 35 more Silai Schools during the ongoing financial year. According to Ajay Dubey, GM, Balrampur Sugar Mil, the sugar mill has played a vital role in uplifting the local people and the USHA Silai School project is helping greatly. He said,

Conditions for the women of this village were not very good. So, work has been done at the block level to empower them. We selected 30-35 women who were then sent to USHA international for further development. There they were sent designs to develop their tailoring skills. Today these women are earning for themselves, as well as training others.

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He further said that we the initiative was started, they face problems as people were not willing to send women to the training camps. He said,

We held a meeting in the village, and explained to the people that this was for their own benefit. We also proposed that arrangements could be made to accommodate the men near the camps. Then we made groups of 40 women each and sent them to training schools in remote areas. Arrangements were made for their stay and all their meals. The programme was run by trainers who came from Delhi. Then we rewarded the trainees for whatever they had learned in just 3-4 days. We monitored their progress continuously for a year. Now, these women have become self-sufficient and self-reliant. They are earning Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000 per month and are also teaching other women.

Pooja Tripathi, a widow and mother of two children, is among those women who has opened USHA Silai School with the support of the Balrampur Foundation through its Project Nai Umeed. Her School was inaugurated in November 2020. She lives in a village a short distance away from the Balarampur sugar mill. She wanted to obtain a B.Ed. degree, but was married off instead. Pooja did not have the time but she definitely had the passion to do something. And it is that passion that brought her to the USHA Silai School. But it wasn't an easy journey. While talking about her journey, she said,

I had learned a little stitching earlier, and would use that limited knowledge to train girls. Then I got to know through Sadbhawna Sanstha that the Balrampur Foundation and USHA Silai School were organising a residential training camp in Babhnan. I wanted to enroll for the training, but my family did not agree. My husband had a marketing job, but he agreed to take a weel's leave, and told me to continue the training.

What made it somewhat easier for Pooja was the support of her husband. With his encouragement and support, Pooja completed her training and, armed with a new USHA machine, started the first USHA Silai School in the area. But destiny had something else in store for her. She lost the one person who had supported her every step of the way - her husband. It was her husband's memories that gave her strength. She said,

I was determined to continue the training, no matter how difficult it became for me. I had a lot of problems, and managed to continue training with great difficulty. I had two small children to raise. I got a lot of support from my family, from the Balrampur mill and the people from the foundation. Umang foundation and sadbhavna people came to my house and supported me a lot. They supported me for everything I needed and for wherever I wanted to go, to the training and meeting venues, or to the market, or to my own house. They would go and inform everyone in the village that I would be opening an USHA Silai School soon, so I had a lot of support. At first, I didn't have the courage to start something on my own, but I thought about my husband's wish for me to move forward, and I started the Silai centre.

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Pooja also received full support from her father-in-law who put aside the grief of losing his young son and took care of all of Pooja's and her children's needs. He made sure that they do not feel anything missing from their lives. Gaya Prasad Tripathi, Pooja's father-in-law said,

Pooja was mentally very disturbed after his death. I explained to her that as a landowner, she would never need to ask anyone for money. We also got a lot of cooperation from and support from Sadbhawna and the Balrampur chini mill. They helped us get more sewing machines, and that is how the condition of our household slowly improved.

Even with this support, Pooja's daily routine is not easy. She wakes up at 5 in the morning, does all the household chores, prepares the food and sends her child to school. From 10 in the morning to 5 in the evening, she runs her Silai School and the shop. In this manner, till 11 in the night, she is managing her child, elderly father-in-law, the Silai School, the cosmetics shop and also her beauty parlour. Pooja's story is an example for other girls. She is teaching them not to give up.

I keep telling girls that no matter how difficult the circumstances are, never give up and never lose hope, and keep moving forward. If you lose hope, there is no progress. Now I want to do something for girls like me who are poor and can't do very much. I teach these girls free of cost. Once they learn, they too will be able to earn some money. All the girls I have taught are now working, nodbody is sitting idle at home, she said.

It is because of Pooja's dedication that more than 50 girls from the areas around her village have trained in sewing and stitching, and are now walking the path of self-reliance. Dr M K Gaur, Head of Delivery Unit, Balarampur Sugar Mill said,

Till now, our focus was on issues like street lights and water. But they gave us suggesttions based on their past experience in women's empowerment, and we signed the contract with them. When they told us about their work and their procedures, we thought we can use it do to good work for women. Then we chose 35 villages, where they conducted training programmes. We went to see the training, when it began, What matters after the training, is the outcome. So, they have a programme focusing on outcomes as well. Of the 35, 8-10 women have established themselves, and started their own silai schools, which are sources of income for them. So now we are signing another contract with them for 35 villages.

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